1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Internet advertising and interactive television advertising and more particularly to a method and apparatus for the protection of the privacy of end users of the Internet and interactive television.
2. Description of Prior Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Targeted advertising on the Internet and interactive television is growing rapidly. It is considered by many to be the holy grail of the advertising business because of the ability to target advertising towards a specific customer for whom the advertising is relevant at the moment that the advertising is presented.
The effectiveness of such advertising depends in large part up the accuracy of the information that the advertiser is able to gather about intended recipients In order to determine which recipients are the appropriate targets for specific advertisements, advertisers, publishers and internet service providers (ISPs) work separately and together to obtain as much information about intended recipients as is possible. They use a variety of methods to obtain this information, including placing cookies on the intended recipients' computer desktops, observing the data stream of the intended recipients at the ISP and observing and recording the behavior patterns of intended recipients at publishers' web sites.
Recipients benefit greatly from targeted advertising by receiving advertisements that are particularly relevant and significant to their interests and needs in a timely fashion, rather than large amounts of information which at any given time may not be of interest or importance to them. Nevertheless, the increasingly pervasive observation of the computer behavior of intended recipients is considered to be offensive to many individuals and causes a great deal of concern about invasion of privacy issues among legislators and others who influence public policy.